~ Award Winning Dungeon Design

High Speed Dungeons and Dragons

After reading Greywulf’s posts about High Speed D&D (30 levels in 30 games), I really started thinking about how to run it with earlier editions.

The basic idea is to run a game of D&D where the characters level up at the end of each single-session adventure. After 30 games, these epic heroes complete the uber-quest and “win”. It gives the players the chance to get the feel of the game through every level of play as well as allowing it to cover a major story arc over under a year of gaming. As a fan of long down-times between adventures (I like to run with a minimum of a season between adventures, often a full year), this appeals to me. Of course, wrangling it to B/X is going to take a bit of work.

4e seems perfect for this setup because of both the tier system and the magic item level and treasure parcel system that can be stripped down into a game of ‘player’s choice’ instead of placed treasure parcels and we can simulate the magic items themselves becoming more powerful as the characters do (or as Greywulf suggested – as the physical manifestations of the characters’ power & will). No more churning through +1 and +2 swords and then throwing them away when you get the +3 sword – unless you really want to find something different and cool in the dragon’s hoard.

The game stops being about treasure hunting, but about whatever story arc the game is meant to pursue. While this may be the antithesis to the sandbox game, I play enough sandbox games that I enjoy a story-arc driven game also.

XP Progression
Game 1: 2,000 XP total
Game 2: 4,000 XP total
Game 3: 8,000 XP total
Game 4: 16,000 XP total
Game 5: 32,000 XP total
Game 6: 64,000 XP total
Game 7: 120,000 XP total
Game 8: 240,000 XP total
Game 9: 360,000 XP total
Game 10: 480,000 XP total
Game 11: 600,000 XP total

.

For games where the classes were somewhat balanced by their XP tables, obviously the first thing that has to change is the rate of leveling up. Instead of giving a level at every session, we’ll need a flat XP amount. Further, as a B/X fan, I would probably run this for 12 levels, not 30 – 3 months of weekly games and then end it (or more likely for our groups a full year of monthly games). Getting to level 12 for the average character (the fighter) takes 600,000 XP. In fact, I think I’ll just use the fighter as the XP progression for the game. So each game the fighter levels up, and other characters may or may not, depending on the XP tally.

With the chart on the right, the elf hits his level cap of 10 for the last session, the dwarf hits level 11, the cleric level 13, the magic user level 11 (getting his first and only level 6 spell in time for the final game), thieves level 12, and the poor halfling of course hit his level cap at the beginning of game 7.

The real issue here is magic items. Treasure is easy to calculate as a character would have gathered about 80-90% of his experience through gold and riches along the way, and probably spent about half of it on “stuff”.

But how do you handle magic items?

The simplest way is probably a chart of “plusses” that you get at certain levels, but that system may work for weapons and armor, but doesn’t work for miscellaneous magic items, staves and so on.

Maybe each character gets one item from the Basic rules potions & scrolls lists at the end of game 1, and so on. But there would still have to be some DM calls as to what is appropriate. For instance there is a huge value disparity between a bag of holding and gauntlets of ogre power in a game where getting as much stuff out of the dungeon as possible has less importance when compared to the adventure.

The final option would be to pull out the old 1e or 3e DMG and use the magic item value charts there, and give the players “money” to spend on gear (sticking to what’s available in the game system you are running) between games as their characters and their equipment becomes more potent.

We’ve been playing games together for nearly 30 years now. If we go into a game with the goal of running a “fast game” through the levels, it will be by necessity different than running one of our standard games.

Also, a story arc does not = railroad unless you are a really crappy DM.

Re magic items – after each session use the “NPC Magic Items” rules from X53. Have them roll for each magic item category and then randomly roll for which items they receive. Will it be balanced? Will they always get appropriate items? No, but who cares.

The issue is one of “character balance” – part of the balancing act for the classes in the older editions was the XP costs. In a d20 or 4e game I would just level up every game, but this ends up robbing the Thief and Cleric and over-rewarding the Elf in a B/X game.

The other issue is that you are cutting out the main reward mechanic of real…er, “old” D&D.

In a 4E game, there is no real reward for playing or playing well except that, as with a video game, new “game content” opens for you. Increasing the rate of level progression simply progresses the speed at which game content becomes available to the players.

In B/X and AD&D, the same game content may or may not be present at every level. A 12th level magic-user has 3 hit points more than a 9th level magic-user and is hit just as easily. A group of orcs that get the drop on him will prevent spell use just as readily at any level (and probably butcher him)…no increased “concentration” skill you know?

In OS D&D one is rewarded for playing the game better. If you do away with the standard reward system, then…um, what are you playing for exactly?

Now, if the point is to create fast level advancement while maintaining differentiation between classes (for example, if you want to open up higher level play faster to allow access to outer planar jaunts or building strongholds) there are other ways to accomplish this, which I’m sure you can devise.
: )

I’m boggled by this response. A level 12 Magic User has significant “new content” available when compared to the level 9 magic user – not just 3 hit points, but a chunk of new spells.

1. You are still being rewarded for playing well, because you don’t get stuck with having to make a new character.

2. You are playing to play through the story arc and see what differences you can make to the game world without involving 120 game sessions.

I don’t want to just start at a higher level, I want a way to give a few players the chance to experience the character growth on fast forward. It’s not exactly new, many old school games just handed out a bucket of XP at the end of the game to each survivor without actually going through the effort of calculating exactly how much XP it should be according to the rules.

I’m aiming to replicate that effect with a set scale as well as see about devising a method to get rid of the classic “lewt the dead critters” system of play so the game can instead focus on politics and world-shaping.

Exactly. I just don’t want to also have to hand out phat lewt while running the game in that manner. We’ll be having significant “down time” between games where the characters will not be adventuring (the Magic User will be studying, the Fighter working as a soldier and then later as a general, the Cleric working for and later running a church, the Thief in his guild, etc) with roughly six months to a year between sessions.

Well good luck with it anyhow, its certainly not my a game style for me, but I would be interested in hearing how it works out for you.

I much prefer the elitist approach; that those at the top of the level pile work hard, earn it, and there are aren’t that many of them in the world (think Achilles, Ajax, Hector, Arthur, Conan, etc) unlike MMORPG’s which have a glut of people at the level cap or (worse still) a million jedis running around. It comes down to psychological factors, nothing that is worth getting comes easy, and deep down, we all know it. It’s part of our intrinsic value system… why when we triumph after a struggle, its worth more.